A Pseudo-Intellectual’s 24 Best YouTube Videos of 2024
I spend a large amount of time on YouTube to learn about the world around me. Here are the most noteworthy videos of 2024.
Click here to view the videos as a playlist.
For reference, some of the videos below are published before 2024, but all of them illustrate topics that interested me this year. Enjoy!
A Journey Through The Darién Gap: The World’s Deadliest Jungle
The Darién Gap, a dense jungle dividing Colombia and Panama, reveals intense power struggles, territorial disputes, treacherous conditions, and the lengths that everyday families go for a better life. Despite the desperate reality, the resilience of people to cross the Darién, uproot their lives, and start anew is remarkable.
How Brands Use Design & Marketing to Control Your Mind (published in 2023)
Consumer buying decisions are unbelievably nuanced. After I watched this video, I begun to understand just how good we are becoming, as a society, at marketing and justifying the purchase and use of products.
Dave Ramsey Explains the National Debt
One of the most popular financial coaches in the US breaks down the national debt. It’s a good reminder of the inner workings of the financial system in the US, and the house of cards that the financial world is built upon.
D-Day veterans return to Normandy for 80th anniversary of Allied invasion
Allied forces liberated Europe 80 years ago, marking one of the last major anniversaries where soldiers present then are alive today. The magnitude of heroic human actions that day cannot be overstated. This quote from a veteran sticks out:
“When anybody wants to talk about somebody being a hero, I always tell them the heroes are still over there.”
For some bonus content, check out how the Allies landed on shores without ports.
$25,000 vs. $25,000,000
Johnny Harris presents an eagle-eye view of income inequality and quality of life in America today at various income levels. To me, the most striking aspect of the video is observing how different income levels naturally impact the way that humans think.
Fascism: An In-Depth Explanation (published in 2022)
Before using political buzzwords that capture attention quickly like communist, fascist, socialist, capitalist, and others, take some time to understand these philosophies and their origins. This breakdown of fascism helps me both relate and distance the movement from modern day phenomena, and I hope it does the same for you.
The Insane Engineering of the Gameboy
The Nintendo Game Boy set handheld gaming console records, selling over 100 million units. For technologists especially, the practical considerations required to make a highly programmable handheld with impressive battery life in 1989 is an impressive lesson in how to assemble an iconic product.
This video will change your mind about the AI hype
Why is every business pumping so much time and money into AI? NeetCode walks through why companies are investing in AI, breaks down the hype cycle, and makes a strong case that investment in AI largely seeks to minimize regret. FOMO is playing out on a Fortune 500 scale!
Google CEO Sundar Pichai says AI search will actually help the web
Many platforms now compete directly with Google on search and getting high-quality answers to questions. Hearing Sundar Pichai answer very difficult and incisive questions from expert interviewer Nilay Patel provides insight into understanding how the internet will evolve.
Mapping the Trump Shooting
This year, we had an assassination attempt on a presidential candidate. It’s hard to believe that Trump almost died, with high US investment in defense and security. How did this happen, and where do we go from here?
The Logistics of a Presidential Campaign
A look into the practical considerations and the decisions that led to the US Democratic Party changing their nominee. This helped me understand how the transition from Biden to Harris happened so quickly and efficiently, not to mention so late in the election cycle.
Governments Can Suddenly Shut Down Your Internet - Here’s Why
As the internet becomes more critical to daily life, western countries take the ease and freedom of internet access for granted. This is not the case everywhere, and ColdFusion digs into how and why internet access can be restricted worldwide. I suspect this will become an even more critical issue in the years to follow.
@Asianometry & Dylan Patel - How the Semiconductor Industry Actually Works
Podcaster Dwarkesh Patel has gained prominence this year for guiding thoughtful guests to help explain complex issues in AI and geopolitics. If you’re curious about chips, compute, the AI race, and how nation states are acting, give this a long listen.
Explaining Ancient India
Historian Rudyard Lynch breaks down how ancient India formed and developed. As an Indian American, I found the breakdown of religion, society, and caste to be a useful and surprising account of India’s history.
America’s Leadership Problem
A look into why American faith in public systems, especially the office of the President of the United States, is waning. This decline is largely due to the Presidency's significantly expanded—and arguably unmanageable—scope compared to its original design.
Training AI to Play Pokemon with Reinforcement Learning (published in 2023)
This video is approachable for all backgrounds! A nostalgic, practical, and genuinely fun look at using modern reinforcement learning policies that power advanced AI, and applying them to a childhood classic video game. The AI’s approach to playing is both clever and amusing!
What If We Killed Every Mosquito On Earth?
Research into bacteria has found a way to breed the elimination of the world’s most annoying and disease ridden pest. Eradicating mosquitos in an ingenious way leads to many moral questions and ramifications.
The Insane Biology of: The Tardigrade
Enjoy a fun rabbit hole about the tardigrade, an indestructible and microscopic bear. Its absurd existence and capabilities motivate longevity research and other avenues of modern science.
It’s Not Just You. No One Wants Kids Anymore.
A detailed and data-driven analysis of changing child trends reveals that birth rate changes are a global phenomenon. This video offers a strong starting point to indicate why these population trends are occurring.
Why Western Designs Fail in Developing Countries
As we build more futuristic designs, and technological progress continues its torrid growth, this video reminds us that it takes more than an ingenious design to solve problems for people in different conditions. This is an impressive second entry from Design Theory!
Investigating Trump, Project 2025 and the future of the United States
The Project 2025 document shows how strategic US conservatives hope to leverage the Trump presidency. As the Trump presidency unfolds, it will be important to see how much of his policies and plans align with Project 2025, and what that may mean for the future of the United States government.
Is Google Training AI on YouTube Videos?
An excellent rant from Hank Green, legendary YouTube creator and creator of iconic education platform CrashCourse, about how AI companies acquire and train data and the tenuous legality surrounding this. I believe data rights will continue to be an issue for many decades.
AI is the new electricity only because “data is the new oil” (a quote from mathematician Humby in 2006).
The truth about mass migration
Professor Peo Hansen from Sweden talks about migration capacity, especially from a European mindset, and the real and financial resources required to accommodate more people. For example, employment rates for migrants continue to climb, and no one takes credit for this positive human development due to the taboo nature of migration discourse.
The Real Reason Japan Surrendered | Best WW2 Documentary
There are two prevailing views on the use of atomic bombs on civilian populations in Hiroshima and Nagasaki: devastatingly unnecessary or regrettably justified. I believe both views lack nuance, and this video provides immense detail to show what really ended the fighting in the Pacific Theater in World War 2.
Video and YouTube is one of the greatest technologies invented for learning new things, and I hope you find new knowledge from this collection of videos! If you’re hungry for more videos, check out the lists from 2023 and 2022!
Thank you for reading and making it this far. Enjoy a lighthearted bonus video below!
LEBRON’s hilarious hoax: the epic prank on BRONNY before his NBA DEBUT!
A hysterical reminder that generational NBA talent LeBron James played long enough at a high level to play with his son! A truly underrated feat.